The Gateway to Your Code

Properties for Sale

Properties represent a type’s data or state. They expose this data by providing read/write access to a type’s fields. Properties and methods inform the user of a type’s behavior and how it's used.

In C#, they are special methods in a class but accessed like fields.

// Field
private string _name = "John Doe";

// Property
public string Name
{
    get => _name;
    set => _name = value;
}

// Methods

// Getter converted to method by CIL
.method public hidebysig specialname 
    instance bool get_Name () cil managed

// Setter converted to method by CIL
.method public hidebysig specialname 
    instance void set_Name (
        bool 'value'
    ) cil managed

// Auto Property (auto-generated backing field)
public bool Name { get; set; }

// Property encapsulating a private field
public bool Name
{
    get { return  _name; }
    set { _name = value; }
}

// Expression-body Property (encapsulating a private field)
public bool Name
{
    get => _name;
    set => _name = value;
}

Learning How to Read and Write

The user can read a property to retrieve information from a type or write to change the state of a type. The access modifier determines the level of exposure.

// Read-only access. 
public string Name => _name;

public string Name
{
		get => _name;
}

// Write only access. 
public string Name
{
		set => _name = value;
}

// Read and write access.
public bool Name
{
    get => _name;
    set => _name = value;
}

// Read-only access within the type.
public string Name
{
		private get => _name;
		set => _name = value;
}

// Write only access within the type.
public string Name
{
		get => _name;
		private set => _name = value; 
}

<aside> <img src="/icons/report_red.svg" alt="/icons/report_red.svg" width="40px" /> Pro-Tip

<aside> <img src="/icons/light-bulb_lightgray.svg" alt="/icons/light-bulb_lightgray.svg" width="40px" /> The get or “getter” method should only return a value.

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<aside> <img src="/icons/light-bulb_lightgray.svg" alt="/icons/light-bulb_lightgray.svg" width="40px" /> The set or “setter” method can have calculations to produce a final value.

</aside>

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